Volume 13: An Update on IANA Stewardship Discussions

Transition another step closer as accountability proposal is sent to Chartering Organizations

·         The final CCWG-Accountability proposal for accountability enhancements that must be in place or committed to within the timeframe of the IANA Stewardship Transition has been sent to its six Chartering Organizations for adoption.

·         The CWG-Stewardship is finalizing a letter confirming that the CCWG-Accountability proposal meets all of their requirements.

·         The ICG will finalize their proposal for transmission to the ICANN Board and NTIA upon receiving confirmation from the CWG-Stewardship.

CCWG-Accountability proposal

On 23 February, the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability) forwarded its Final Supplemental Proposal on Work Stream 1 Recommendations for the approval of its six Chartering Organizations (GNSO, ALAC, ccNSO, GAC, ASO, SSAC). The Final Supplemental Proposal incorporates:

·         Feedback received during the public comment period on the Third Draft Proposal.

·         Further development of the recommendations by the CCWG-Accountability members and participants to resolve the sometimes-conflicting issues raised by community feedback.

·         A change made as a result of concerns expressed by some members of the GAC and by theICANN Board regarding whether or not the GAC could be a member of the Empowered Community when invoking an Independent Review Process triggered by the Board acting on GACadvice. Initially, the Supplemental Proposal recommended not including the GAC as a part of the Empowered Community in such circumstances (on the CCWG-Accountability list, this was termed the “carve out” of the GAC); the final version removes this constraint.

Final approval of CCWG-Accountability’s Work Stream 1 recommendations triggers the next phase in theIANA Stewardship Transition – the transmission of both the transition and accountability proposals to theNTIA by way of the ICANN Board of Directors. The transmission is expected to take place during or immediately following the Public ICANN Board Meeting on 10 March.

Timeline

When the NTIA receives the proposals, it will review the contents to ensure that the proposals meet thecriteria published by the NTIA on 14 March 2014. NTIA will also inform U.S. Congress about the status of the proposals. NTIA’s contract with ICANN expires on 30 September 2016 but NTIA has the authority to extend the contract if needed.

IANA Stewardship Transition and Accountability discussions at ICANN55

Note: The CCWG-Accountability will meet in Marrakech during ICANN55, but at this point, the main focus of the CCWG’s work in Marrakech is planning Work Stream 2 activities. Work Stream 2 focuses on accountability topics that extend beyond the IANA Stewardship Transition.

IANA Stewardship Transition Proposal

The IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) has requested confirmation that the CCWG-Accountability Supplemental Draft Proposal meets all of the requirements of the Cross Community Working Group to Develop an IANA Stewardship Transition Proposal on Naming Related Functions (CWG-Stewardship).

The CWG-Stewardship held a teleconference on 25 February to discuss its response to the CCWG-Accountability Chartering Organizations and the ICG regarding whether the Supplemental Proposal meets all of the CWG-Stewardship’s requirements. The draft letter of confirmation is here.

When the ICG receives confirmation from the CWG-Stewardship, the ICG will finalize the Proposal to Transition the Stewardship of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Functions from the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to the Global Multistakeholder Community for delivery to the ICANN Board to transmit to NTIA. To do this, theICG will hold a teleconference on March 1.

IANA Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

A group consisting of representatives from the three IANA operational communities has been finalizing details on how IANA IPR should be managed after the transition has occurred.

IANA IPR consists of three IANA trademarks (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, IANA and the IANAlogo) and their registrations as well as three IANA-related domain names (iana.org, iana.net, andiana.com).

These discussions are still underway. To follow recent developments you can follow the mailing list, iana-ipr, which is publicly archived here. 

Compiled on behalf of ICANN by Samantha Dickinson                                    

26 February 2016